(Tegustamuchoelcine) Snotty boy (Mocoso). Annecy 2021
In German Rotzbub, in competition in the Annecy feature length section. It is an impressive Austrian-German film co-directed by Spanish director Santiago Lopez Jover and German Marcus Rosenmüller, based on the ideas and style of the famous Austrian cartoonist Manfred Deix .
The film is worthy of being at the Annecy festival, the Goya, the Oscars, and all possible contests and festivals. His brilliance is such that he manages to captivate us from second 1 when a baby plays with a funny face, inside his mother's gut, fighting comically not to go outside. From the beginning we see the flying and artist mind of the young "brat." This young man lives in an Austrian town from the 60s, with many reminiscences and nostalgia for the old Nazi government.
The minds of the inhabitants are narrow, like the pants of boys who go to school. With a mural as the central axis, which has to be painted in the church, the various characters of the town pretend to be the most neat and worthy of the place, while committing the "sins" that they themselves say they should not commit. Hypocrisy is making its way in this world where the "inferiors" are not welcome, creating a general stupor when some gypsies come to town.
With continuous great details of the script, complicated to carry out for the price of the second in animation, this work gains a lot of quality. Details such as the different skin tone on the protagonist's arms and thighs from having sunbathed, gestures when the unbearable student in class sits shaking his ass, and the classmate in the back makes a disgusted face. A sharp script, creating a unique personality for each character, forcing the film not to be flat, with an abusively silly partner, another thinking how to get money and not helping creditors, etc. The gestures of the bartender who invites the protagonist to lemonade (or beer) are worthy of a separate criticism. This man with long hair is portrayed to perfection, his gestures are more credible than those of some real actors, who seem to have swallowed a broomstick.
The brilliance of the film does not end there, the constant social criticism is concise and treated with just enough force not to be cloying or pedantic. The sexual freedom of the neighbor, the value of the artistic value of making a portrait of the body of a semi-naked woman, the youth with crazy hormones that make them use the toilets more than normal, the pimples that burst by themselves, the paternal love in the face of the abuse of an uncle who thinks he is Rembrandt, the prevailing racism in the church, bars, school, the street, etc., the frustrated dreams ending up in a bar to survive, or the rain of shit that covers the general idea with a thick veil that the important thing is to act in good faith, and not disturb others.
The script has the ability to intermingle several stories in parallel, but they end up being convincingly related to each other, with neighboring ones with protruding shapes that cause men's faces to become flaccid penises with hanging hairy testicles. A coarse detail that becomes poetry when we relate it to the nature of men, and that from the beginning, when the newborn baby sees the breast and calms down by clinging to it. "All men are equal" is the phrase the nurse seems to say.
The humor, along with a great tension, intrigue, dynamic images, camera movement to show the 3D of the fields and houses, everything makes this film like. Compared with the rest of the long and short films, this film is remarkable, comparing only to the level of millionaire production films such as "Soul", "Toy story ...", etc. In Europe, only the films from the Bristol factory with their characters "Wallace and Gromit" could be compared in quality to "Snotty boy", yes, with another technique, since those from Bristol use stop motion.
The drawing on the wall of the church is worth printing and hanging in A3 to enjoy all that it means. Both this drawing and the general technique of the tape have a liking for his alma mater, Manfred Deix , who liked to criticize religion and who, if he were alive, would see that his work continues with this tape.
https://www.tegustamuchoelcine.com/2021/06/snotty-boy-mocoso-annecy-2021.html